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Thursday, 12 May 2016

You’re guilty of epic hypocrisy, The Guardian of London tells UK PM

For saying Nigeria is fantastically corrupt

THE Guardian of Lon­don has questioned the morality
of the British Prime Minister David Cameron, to host a sum­mit on
corruption when the International Mon­etary Fund (IMF) and others
recognise London as a tax haven.
The Guardian, in its Editorial yesterday, was reacting to Cameron’s
comment on Nigeria and Afghanistan as two fan­tastically corrupt
coun­tries. Cameron made the statement during a visit to Queen Elizabeth
II to mark her 90th birthday.
The newspaper said though Cameron may not be corrupt, he is
“certainly guilty of epic hypocrisy. So, for that matter, are Britain
and the West.”
Even then, the edito­rial was quick to remind readers that the summit
was “being hosted by a politician who admit­ted last month that he has
personally profited from offshore finance and whose party is bank­rolled
by an industry that makes extravagant use of those same tax havens.
“Not only that, he has intervened to aid tax avoiders.”
The newspaper won­dered why Cameron failed to mention to the Queen a
letter sent him a fortnight ago by anti-corruption campaigners in
Nigeria. According to the Guardian, the campaigners said, “We are
embarked on a nation­wide anti-corruption campaign.
“But these efforts are sadly undermined if countries such as your own
are welcoming our corrupt to hide their ill-gotten gains in your
lux­ury homes, department stores, car dealerships, private schools and
any­where else that will ac­cept their cash with no questions asked.
“The role of London’s property market as ves­sels to conceal stolen
wealth has been exposed in court documents, re­ports, documentaries and
more.” The news­paper drew attention to Panama Papers and names of some
Nigeri­ans linked to offshore as­sets, noting that though “none of these
individu­als may have done any­thing wrong, but the charge from those
cam­paigners is hard to duck.”
The editorial also que­ried Cameron, saying, the prime minister
“should have told the Queen that President Muhammadu Buhari is coming to
Lon­don to lobby it to sort out the tax havens in its own backyard.”
It lamented that Brit­ain and the West “have spent decades ordering
poor countries and failed states (including Afghan­istan) to sort out
their problems with doggy money, even while tak­ing much of that doggy
money and ploughing it through their banks, their ritzy stores, their
estate agents, and their offshore tax havens, with barely any ques­tions
asked or eyebrows raised.”
Quoting Oxfam, the editorial said, “a third of all trillions hiding
off­shore are sitting in tax havens linked to the UK,” explaining that
these ha­vens rely on Britain for security and protection.
“The Jersey pound note features the Queen. On the Caymans, they sing as the national anthem God Save the Queen.
Yet Whitehall per­sists in pretending they are autonomous – even
though London has over­ridden them before, on the abolition of capital
punishment, say, or the decriminalizing of ho­mosexual acts. It will not
do so on shady finance, however.”